#DoctorShaming
Recently, there have been multiple Facebook posts against medical practioners. Pictures and/or videos of doctors, either sleeping, texting, or doing a procedure have surfaced the web with additional malicious comments. Itâs quite upsetting because as a doctor myself, I feel threatened by such actions by my patients and their folks.
A few days ago, while I was helping my intern in restraining a toddler while she inserts an IV, the toddlerâs father was taking a video of us. He was caught in act by our resident doctor. He claimed that taking a video doesnât matter because itâs his child anyway. But I beg I disagree. What was his motive in taking the video?
Sir, first and foremost, we are doing our job seriously. We are restraining your child because we want to make sure that the IV insertion would be successful on the first hit. Second of all, if we fail in our insertion, it is NOT because we are not competent but because of multiple factors. If only you could hear the screams of pain from my muscles as I tried my hardest to restrain your daughter without hurting her, I bet you would understand. And if you want to play the blame game, I would gladly tell you that you have let your child be sick for days without seeking medical attention. She was moderately dehydrated, bordering severe dehydration, when she was brought to the ER. Her veins we collapsing immediately. Dear sir, the body doesnât lie.Â
So, let me get this out of my chest. We arenât âpracticingâ on our child. If only you could have seen our own bruised hands, tender from all the needles we stick into them for practice. We arenât apathetic creatures who sleep during our tour of duty while our patients couldnât because of discomfort due to the lack of beds in the ER. If only we could tell you when was the last time we laid on our own beds, take a proper bath or even eat a proper meal. We arenât disrespectful just because you see us texting or calling almost all the time. If only we could show you our inbox full of unread messages from family and friends, and call logs with only our consultants names on it.Â
We have sacrificed a lot for this profession. We didnât only miss birthdays, holidays, and reunions, but also missed taking care of our own selves. We have to live through meal-less days, sleepless nights and even be on our feet for more than 24 hours. We have defied the rules we created to be healthy. We didnât choose this career for personal gain. We had lost everything for us to achieve this career. And now, people would just take pictures and videos and post them online, causing us our career? If you had no confidence in us, then why bring your child (or family) to us?Â
